Arena Lviv
Arena Lviv is a football specific stadium in Lviv, Ukraine. It was one of the eight UEFA Euro 2012 venues, where it hosted three of the group-stage games. According to the official plans, the stadium has a total seating capacity of 34,915. It has also been the new home field of FC Karpaty Lviv since 10 December 2011. Overview Construction work began on November 20, 2008 and was completed by October 2011. The opening ceremony took place on 29 October, with a vast theatrical production dedicated to the history of Lviv. The first football match in the stadium was played on 15 November 2011, between Ukraine and Austria, ending with a score of 2–1. The first player to score a goal in the new stadium was Artem Milevskiy in the 16th minute (the second was an own goal and the third was scored by Marko Dević in the 91st minute). Name The stadium's final name is yet to be announced. Lemberg stadium, the name of Lviv in German, is one of the names being considered. The mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy stated that there is still a whole year to find a name for the stadium. According to the local internet news media zaxid.net, the mayor explained that for ethical reasons he will not disclose those propositions which are scheduled to be announced during an auction where the name of stadium will be sold. He also noted that the name will be discussed with the local Oblast administration and the National agency in preparation for Euro 2012. Nonetheless, one of the members of Lviv council from BYuT rushed to reveal one of the options in an interview with Mediastar. Mr. Novozhenets stated that the stadium would be named after Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. This information caused a great uproar in Polish media, since Stepan Bandera's OUN faction is said to have borne the primary responsibility for murdering over 100,000 Poles during the years 1942-1944. Construction The original architectural firm for the project was Hochtief Construction which had completed the Dnipro Arena. They made a presentation of their design on May 21, 2007 and proposed the name of Lemberg. The capacity of the stadium was originally planned to be 32,000, at a total cost of 70.4 million euros. It was planned that the stadium would be erected prior to 2010. The Hochtief representatives met with Andriy Sadovy and Myroslav Senyk (the head of a local regional council). Lviv officials claimed that the arena would cost 60 million euros, with 75% of the amount to be paid by an investor and 25% by the city government. In early 2008, Hochtief was replaced by the Austrian company AlpineBau. After almost a year of discussions, no works had begun and by October 10, 2008 AlpineBau rejected the city's bid of 85 million euros, requesting at least 100 million. On October 23, 2008, Lviv's administration contacted ISD (Industrial Union of Donets Basin). ISD is a major transnational industrial corporation in Eastern Europe, combining several industries including mining, construction, metallurgy, machine-building, and others. As time was limited, municipal officials held talks with another Austrian architectural company, Albert Wimmer, which designed the Hypo-Arena in Klagenfurt. Together with another local company Arnika, they came up with the design for the Ukrainian stadium. On November 7, the Ministry of Economics appointed the project-construction company Azovinteks as the general contractor which immediately sent about one hundred of its workers, along with equipment, to Lviv. Azovinteks is based in Mariupol and is part of the ISD group. The website, turnir.com.ua, referencing the declaration of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers said that in April 2010 the government of Ukraine transferred the stadium into the sphere of control of the Ministry of Sport, Family, and Youth in order to stabilize and accelerate the construction of the stadium. Previously, the stadium was the property of the Lviv communal venture "Directorate for construction of a stadium in Lviv". On June 23, 2010 the deputy chairman of the Lviv Oblast State Administration (LODA) Volodymyr Hubytsky informed the members of Lviv's council that the financing of Euro-2012 in the city of Lviv had been increased by five billion hryvna (from 5.3 to 10.3 overall). Hubytsky also said the government had confirmed the State Aiming Program for the preparation of the final stage of Euro-2012. The Lviv Oblast was assigned up to 16.4 billion hryvnas to completely cover the construction of the stadium and the city's airport. The head of the oblast administration also stated that rates of construction were increased and by August 30 the stands' carrying structure for the second tier would be installed. Hubytsky said that a consensus was found with the state company "Lviv Armored-Tank maintenance plant" which agreed to surrender part of its territory for the construction of approachable road access and various engineer networks for the stadium. ;Construction financing The deputy chairman said that 345 million hryvnas were spent on all construction projects in 2010, which was one and a half times more than the previous couple of years (216 million). The state program estimated the financing of all Euro-2012-related projects at 5.7 billion hryvnas, out of which 4 billion would come from the state budget, 1.35 from investors, and the rest .36 billion from the local budget. For the stadium only, the program assigned some 1.65 billion hryvnas, out of which .31 billion (.23 - state, .08 - Lviv) were released at the start of construction and 180 billion in 2010. Other stadiums in Lviv There are two other major stadiums in the city. One of them is the Ukraina Stadium which is leased to FC Karpaty Lviv until 2018. Ukraina Stadium is also one of the main alternative stadiums of the Ukrainian national football team. Another major stadium in Lviv is the SKA Stadium. Both Ukraina and SKA are located in much closer proximity to the centre of Lviv than Arena Lviv. UEFA Euro 2012 matches The stadium was one of the venues for the UEFA Euro 2012. Three group B matches were played there (with the other matches in that group played at Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv). The following matches were played at the stadium during the UEFA Euro 2012: External links * Official website * Stadion.lviv.ua – website about «Arena Lviv» * Photo and webcam from stadium * Two web cameras at city council website Category:UEFA Euro 2012 stadiums in Ukraine Category:Football venues in Ukraine